Explanation:
Get out your
red/blue glasses
and float next to 4 Vesta.
A 500 kilometer diameter
world, Vesta
lies in the main
asteroid belt between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter.
This stereo anaglyph
was constructed from two
separate images recorded on July 24 by the
just
arrived Dawn
spacecraft's framing camera with a resolution of about
500 meters per pixel.
The 3D view features
Vesta's newly discovered terrain,
including long equatorial ridges and troughs and
the prominent string of three craters at the upper
right dubbed
Snowman.
Highlighted in 3D, steep sides of many of the craters
show streaks of both bright and dark material.
Of course, the
ion-driven Dawn
spacecraft is not
marooned
off Vesta.
After a year exploring the asteroid from orbit,
Dawn is scheduled to depart, beginning its journey to
Ceres.
